Sproggiwood
This game will always hold a special place for me as the introduction of my kids to roguelikes. There’s no auto-explore here, it’s more “puzzle roguelike” than I’d really prefer, but it’s ideal for my 7, 10 and 13 year old to play and get far too much enjoyment out of. Add to that the developers are some of my favorites (I don’t know them personally, but they also make Caves of Qud, a roguelike that I enjoy quite a bit as well) and I can heartily recommend the game to most anyone dipping thier toe into roguelikes without knowing what all the fuss is about.
– Real player with 35.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack Procedural Generation Games.
THE ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY…
Okay at best, only somewhat charming, and worth a casual playthrough at most.
[➕] THE POSITIVES
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The MUSIC. Is delightful. If anything, you’ll keep the volume turned up just to hear the cheery tunes as you play.
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ENEMY VARIETY. Is nice! Each level serves as a foundation for the next, so the game is always building on itself all the way through to the end.
– Real player with 26.4 hrs in game
Jupiter Hell
*** UPDATED 1.0 REVIEW ***
Jupiter Hell is fuckin' awesome. This is the best turn-based, combat-focused game since XCOM 2. Don’t get me wrong – the game plays totally differently, but fans of XCOM will be right at home. In many ways, I prefer Jupiter Hell – it’s got a straight-forward, blood and guts approach that makes it super fun and easy to pick up. The base mechanics are simple yet deep. It’s definitely going to kick your ass though, and thanks to it I’ve cursed at my monitor at 3AM far more than my neighbors would like. Yet, it’s extremely approachable and the second you die you just want to play more to see what sort of a cool class you can build out this time, what crazy weapon you’ll find or what dumbass way you’ll die next (my favorite was when I got a perk that set enemies near to me on fire – something that paired poorly with explosive barrels).
– Real player with 305.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack Procedural Generation Games.
This was a tough review to do, probably my hardest one. I do ultimately recommend this game! Despite the Cons I list, it’s FUN and replay-able when you put some hours into it.
Jupiter Hell is 80% towards being a total gem of a game. The other 20% can be an issue.
I have 3 small cons, and 1 major one. If these are addressed, this game would be worth $50 even. Yes, twice the price. As it sits, the game is worth $25 but perhaps just that.
PROS:
1. It does accomplish the DOOM feel, with the music, the voice lines, the UI, and the monsters you fight. This is the strong point of Jupiter Hell. The graphics are great, and many of the weapons feel satisfying to use once you learn how they work. If you are looking for the experience of DOOM but in a new style setting (top down, turn based, non FPS), this game is it.
– Real player with 56.2 hrs in game
Desktop Dungeons
TL;DR Not a hack-and-slash
Quick and surprisingly addictive dungeon-crawler with lots of mazes, simple rules, high strategy and low luck – you only die when you’ve made a blunder, or backed yourself into a corner by poor planning.
This may seem like a simple hack-and-slash, but it’s not. There’s almost no luck and a surprising amount of planning involved. Each dungeon is like a puzzle, and might take 15-45 minutes to complete. You start each dungeon as a lowly level 1 character. Kill the monsters in a certain order and gain the power-ups at the right times and you will be able to defeat the boss-monster and thus “win” each dungeon. if you randomly charge in like a hack-and-slash game, you won’t maximize your powerups and you won’t have enough health to tackle the tougher monsters. Same if you spend the power-ups too soon. If you don’t defeat the tougher monsters, you don’t gain the experience-point bonuses to increase your abilities enough to tackle the boss-monster. As you complete dungeons, you can unlock other character classes (again, you start each dungeon back as level 1 and the layout of each dungeon is randomly generated each time).
– Real player with 435.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack Puzzle Games.
I was wary of this. I played a ton of alpha, even after I had unlocked everything and finished all the levels. It was a lot of fun, and I appreciated the minimalism of the game. I paid for the advance copy something like three years ago, played the game, then stopped and sort of put it behind me for a while.
Then, just a couple weeks ago, I saw that it was released on steam. While I thought about looking up my copy of it, minutes later I received a message saying because I paid in advance I got a steam key!
– Real player with 136.9 hrs in game